A head of a conventional brush or a toothbrush usually has a flat or slightly altered surface to which a plurality of stand up elements is attached. Usually the stand up elements are natural bristles or strands of plastic materials(s) formed into tufts bundles, or other groupings. The stand up elements are attached to the head either before or after forming the brush.
Various approaches have been advanced in the prior art for orienting the stand up elements on a brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,217 issued Jun. 8, 1937 to E. I. Brothers, et al. discloses two or three circular brush sections which are arranged within cups 5 and 5′ that may be screwed into mating receptacles in the tooth brush handle so that they can be removed and replaced as needed (page 2, lines 52 70). Each brush section contains stiff cleaning elements and is spaced from the other along longitudinal axis of the handle at a distance less than the thickness of a tooth so that the brush operates on both the lingual (inside) and facial (outside) surfaces of the teeth (page 2, column 1, line 71 to column 2, line 9).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,604,951 describes a toothbrush with a head containing a flexible, rubber-like prophylaxis polishing cup or “prophy cup” similar to that used by dental personnel to professionally cline teeth. This prophy cup is loaded with toothpaste by the user and applied to the teeth. According to this patent, the “soft rubber-like prophy cup device follows the contours of teeth more effectively than bristles.” This patent also discloses a ring of cleaning elements (“bristle tufts”) placed about the periphery of the toothbrush head which co-act with the prophy cups to clean the user's teeth and gums.